College Football Program a Threat to Land No. 1 Spot in Recruiting Rankings

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Dave Holcomb | Last updated May 18, 2025 3:07 PM ET

The Ohio State Buckeyes won the 2024 national championship. They could capture another huge victory on the recruiting trail.

According to ESPN , only the USC Trojans have a better 2026 recruiting class than the Buckeyes. If Ohio State manages to receive commitments from another few top recruits, with the star receivers the program has already landed, then the Buckeyes could finish with the top-ranked class for next year.

"Ryan Day has the luxury of building his 2026 class around one of the most coveted players in the country: five-star receiver (Chris) Henry (Jr.), whose father, the late Chris Henry, was a star receiver for West Virginia and the Cincinnati Bengals," ESPN's Craig Haubert wrote. "Henry Jr. stands 6-6 and has a combination of length and quickness rarely seen from high school receivers."

Five-star Chris Henry Jr. is the top recruit the Buckeyes have landed for 2026. But he's hardly the only highly touted prospect committed to Ohio State in next year's class.

"The rest of the Buckeyes' class has started to take shape around Henry," Haubert wrote. "The team has added a handful of ESPN 300 prospects since March, including (safety Blaine) Bradford out of Louisiana and linebacker Simeon Caldwell out of Florida.

"C.J. Sanna is a prospect we like on tape; he is a big, physical linebacker with excellent range and is a bit of an underrated pickup for this talented class. In-state offensive tackle Maxwell Riley is impressive changing direction and finishes plays with the type of nastiness that will endear him to fans in Columbus."

Ohio State 2026 5⭐️ WR commit Chris Henry Jr. 6-5, 205 and the No. 1 player in the country per composite rankings pic.twitter.com/5wj51bU5lj
— The Buckeye Nut (@TheBuckeyeNut) June 10, 2024

Based on the 247 Sports composite rankings , Ohio State currently holds the No. 3 recruiting class for 2026. USC and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are ahead of the Buckeyes.

However, USC has 27 commits while Notre Dame has 16. The Buckeyes have received 13 verbal commitments, giving them arguably a much-higher quality class.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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